justiceleaguebeyondfandomcom-20200213-history
Justice League Beyond Vol. 2 Issue 008
Maxine and Ginny have a barbecue at their home for the League members. Everyone is in costume but Dream provides the illusion of a giant marquee to provide some privacy from the neighbours. It's busy with only a few absentees, Steel Shiva had urgent business in Japan and Das Ritter Von Nacht stayed on monitor duty, and people are having a good time. The Flusher has a problem with the strictly vegetarian fare. An attempt to teleport in something meatier is interrupted by Krypto who wants some as well. An emergency message comes down from the Satellite, a hostage situation had developed at Professor Quantum's base on The Moon. Superman Secundus mentions that a fellow reporter from the Daily Planet was there doing an interview. After a sunny day and many beers only a few League members are ready to respond to the call. Living Statue would like to help but XXX – ship name 1 has not been upgraded yet to take his large frame and extra mass. In the end it's down to Superman Secundus, Animal Woman, The Flusher, and Zachary Zatara. Animal Woman pilots the ship to the Moon where Zach delights in confusing the robot sent to greet them. Inside the base are many rooms filled with strange equipment and experiments. In one the Japanese villain Sexy Ruby Joker Girl holds the reporter, Lucas Messam, on a catwalk near a vat of swirling blue-grey goo. She is demanding Nth Metal from Professor Quantum who is held by some goons inexpertly dressed as clowns. Now that the Justice League is here that's not going to happen. The Flusher uses a portal and taps into the tank of goo. He hoses down the goons with the unknown fluid which starts eating away at whatever it touches. Their guns dribble to the floor and they start throwing off their dissolving clothes. Joker Girl is unperturbed and uses a joke flower on her jacket to squirt Lucas in the face with a clear liquid. He jerks backwards, hit the handrail, and flips over falling into the vat below. His scream is cut short. Superman tries to fish him out using an improvised hook without success. Zach uses his magic to transform the fluid into harmless spring water. While the team is distracted Joker Girl throws out a bag full of marbles to trip them up and makes an escape towards the hanger and her shuttle. Animal Woman chases and grabs at her braided green hair but ends up holding a wig and nothing else. In the lab Professor Quantum is confused by a small amount of goo left in the water. Apparently the tank had been filled with unprogrammed experimental nanites and was cleared by Zach's spell. However what remains is different, the nanites contain a large inactive program he has not seen before. The team is not keen to experiment with this but the professor activates the program anyway. The goo boils up into a cloud then swirls, condenses, and reforms into an intact reporter. While the team are shocked Lucas just wonders what happened to Joker Girl. The League members decided to return to the Satellite to investigate this further. While a brief physical suggests that Lucas is normal a more detailed examination reveals the truth. Superman's microscopic vision can discern the billions of tiny robots that now make up Lucas's body. Saturn Girl tries to use her mind powers to gently break the news that he had died and is now just a simulation of his previous self. However mental powers don't seem to work on nanites. Eventually they show him the video of his struggle over the vat. Lucas remains surprisingly calm, saying that he feels fine. He is briefly assign to guest quarters to rest until Zach decides to take him to the training room to see what he can do. When Animal Woman finds out she's angry at this breach of protocol. Meanwhile Zach is shaken when, after a particular hard blow from one of the training robots, he see Lucas dissolve into fog before reforming unharmed. The Flusher helps Animal Woman contact the Super Young Team to arrange a meeting and help deal with Sexy Ruby Joker Girl. Lucas asks to come along to cover the story. They discover that Japan is much more superhero-friendly with fans at the airport and crowding the central square where they meet Most Excellent Superbat. He introduces his friends to the League, "He shoots energy, she can summon hard water, he has super speed, she shouts super-loud and I'm so rich I can do '''anything'."'' Animal Woman thinks it'll be hard to do anything with so many fans around. The Flusher impresses Superbat with the suggestion of crowd-sourcing their search for the villain. A short Twitterati post with the offer of tickets to Lolita Canary's latest concert produces the location of a recent car-jacking. They head off in the Wonder Wagon which turns out to be not just a car but a flying car.